HIGHLAND, CA (CBSLA) — Isabella Sanchez has always been doted on.
She’s the baby of the family.
But these days, that doting is more out of necessity — not just love.
“We live for Isabella. my husband and I, we live for her. we’re her arms, we’re her eyes, we’re her body,” mom Carina told CBS2’s Tina Patel.
Isabella has been confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak since 2012.
She was 6-years-old then and running for her school bus when she was hit by a car.
It happened at 9th Street and Highland.
Carina admits her daughter had jaywalked. She said it was something many kids in the area did.
“People should always follow rules. me, as a mother, didn’t realize how dangerous this was.” she said.
But the girl’s attorney says the school bus company — Durham School Services — should have realized how dangerous it was. He argues the school should have followed their own rules and alerted the school and the district to the constant jaywalking.
“The school district 100 percent relies on the bus company to report and fix these unsafe conditions that were out there,” says attorney Geoff Wells.
A jury ruled that Carina was partly to blame for the accident but also found the bus company was mostly to blame.
The jury awarded Isabella just over $36 million in damages. Her family says the money will make sure she gets the care and therapy she will need for the rest of her life.
They also want the bus company and parents to make sure safety is their top priority.
“I think getting the word out may save a child’s life or save their life from ending up in a wheelchair like Isabella,” says Wells.
“Use those crosswalks, use those lights. Because they’re there for a reason,” said Carina, “We don’t want this to happen to any other kid.”
Patel tried to get a comment from bus company but said they declined to comment on the verdict.
===============
Highland Girl Struck by Car While Crossing to Bus Stop Awarded $36M in Lawsuit Against Bus Company
by Melissa Pamer,
Updated at 05:50PM, September 21, 2017
An 11-year-old girl who was left with severe injuries and a traumatic brain injury after being hit by a car while walking to her school bus in Highland has been awarded more than $36 million after her family sued the bus company.
Isabella Escamilla Sanchez is shown in a photo provided by her law firm, Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP.
A jury in San Bernardino reached a verdict in favor of Isabella Escamilla Sanchez on Thursday, according to the family’s law firms, Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP of Santa Monica and the Law Offices of Andy Basseri of Beverly Hills and Rancho Cucamonga.
Sanchez was 6 years old on Oct. 3, 2012, when she was struck by a Subaru Impreza as she crossed the street in the middle of the block in order to get on her school bus.
The girl was being walked to the bus stop by an adult neighbor of her grandparents who was unable to stop her from darting into the roadway, according to court records.
Her neck, pelvis, arm and leg were fractured. The traumatic brain injury she received requires her to have 24-hour nursing care for the rest of her life, the law firm said.
The $36.1 million awarded by the jury will go into a trust for her medical care.
The family sued Durham School Services for “failing to report and prevent mid-street crossings, which is a blatant violation of their own policies and procedures,” a news release from the law firms stated.
Durham School Services is a private company that receives contracts with school districts across the country to provide transportation services. It was founded in 1917 in the San Gabriel Valley, but is now a division of Illinois-based National Express LLC, according to its website.
A spokeswoman for Durham School Services declined to comment on the jury verdict.
Isabella Escamilla Sanchez is shown before the car crash in a photo provided by her law firm, Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP.
Testimony at the five-week trial indicated parents and students regularly crossed Ninth Street in the middle of the block en route to the bus stop that served Bonnie Oehl Elementary School. Parents testified that they didn’t cross at a nearby controlled intersection because “they didn’t appreciate the danger” of crossing in the middle of the block, the law firm stated.
Bus drivers never notified the San Bernardino City Unified School District about the problem, the firm said.
A discipline process was in place to warn students and parents about dangerous practices at bus stops, and violations could escalate to students losing bus privileges, both the school district and Durham School Services indicated at trial. But that process could only be triggered if bus drivers reported problems such as the mid-block crossings, the law firm said.
The jury found that the bus company was 80 percent responsible, while Sanchez’s mother was 20 percent responsible.
The lawsuit was filed in San Bernardino Superior Court in August 2013, with Durham School Services named as a defendant about a month after the initial filing, county records show. The city of Highland, county of San Bernardino, the school and the school district were initially named as defendants, among other parties.